This invention generally relates to firefighting equipment and more particularly pertains to a new illuminated fire hose, fire engine, fire ladder truck, and individual fire fighter tool attachment for providing a portable, optional light source for a fire hose, fire engine, fire ladder truck, and individual fire fighter that illuminates a target or a pathway as well as provide video monitoring capability and sensors for indicating/monitoring current conditions and warning systems to alert fire fighters of hazardous conditions and assist in the location of lost or incapacitated fire fighters.
Today's fire fighters are asked to fill many roles and operate on diverse emergency scenes. These scenes include structural fire fighting, wild land fire fighting, vehicular accidents, technical rescues, hazardous material exposures, and emergency medical incidents. All of these incident scenes present unique and different challenges. One of the commonalities is the utilization by fire fighters of hand lines with various extinguishing agents on almost every scene. Fire fighters use these hand lines not only to extinguish fire, but to protect themselves and the citizens they are called to serve, at any scene day or night. Fire fighters are required to carry an inordinate number of hand tools to include personal flashlights, scene lighting, extrication tools, fire fighting tools, medical equipment, and radios. The complexity of the work environment and minimum staffing on most emergency scenes makes it virtually impossible for crews to be adequately prepared and carry all the tools they need for any one situation. The necessity to return to on scene fire vehicles to retrieve additional equipment is time consuming and dangerous. Fire fighters need a new option to lessen their work loads, enhance visibility, improve communication, identify unseen hazards, provide early warning, and make the operating environment a more efficient and safer place to work.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a device and method that overcomes the above problems. The device and method would provide a hands-free tool and carrying device to assist fire crews involved in search, rescue, and fire suppression efforts. The device and method would provide a lighting source and video monitoring capability to be used in fire fighting operations that provides adequate lighting for engaged fire fighters and remote video monitoring capability by fire ground supervisors to promote safe operations inside or outside a structure. An example of inside operations would be a commercial structure fire, apartment fire, or house fire. An example of outside operations would be a wild land fire or illuminating the scene of a vehicle accident. The device and method would provide a high-intensity light source and video monitoring capability that may be affixed to any nozzle on a hand line of a fire hose, water discharge outlet of a fire engine/ladder truck, or individually carried by a fire fighter with a carrying device.
The device and method would provide for atmospheric monitoring to detect hazardous materials in the work environment. The device and method would provide for personal health monitoring of individual fire fighters to promote early treatment for sickness or injury. The device and method would act as an early warning device for structure collapse, self-contained breathing apparatus air management, or lost/incapacitated fire fighter. The device and method would provide these benefits and enhanced communication through a hands-free, voice free lighting system easily visible to the fire fighters on the face of the device with an integrated video monitoring capability able to provide real time video presentation to incident commanders at locations distant from the engaged fire fighters. Command units on the perimeter of the emergency scene would be constantly apprised of fire fighting operating conditions and could communicate instantly the necessity to change strategy, withdraw crews from dangerous situations, or effect a rescue.